Finnish Football Show episode 2

Monday 14th December sees myself, Mark and Mark return to our respective hotseats for the second episode of the Finnish Football Show. After the surprisingly good reception of the first episode, we will be looking at the Finland national team, with new boss Hans Backe due to start in three weeks time.

As before, we will be recording using the Blab platform, so it'll be a live video broadcast (effectively a video call) before the edited recording hits your podcast devices later in the week.

Please join us at 7pm GMT (9pm in Finland), where you can help contribute messages and tweets using the hashtag #FFS2 - see what we did there?

Subscribe to this link - Finnish Football Show episode 2

See you then!

The Finnish Football Show podcast

I've been threatening this for a few months now...

There's going to be a Finnish football podcast starting this week! I'll be joined by Mark Wiltshear of the Explore Finland Radio Show and Mark Hayton of FC Suomi to talk about the various goings on in Finland and beyond. Seeing as we're all English, but with various links to Finland, we'll be speaking our native tongues.

But it's not just a podcast - there is also an interactive element. The show is being hosted on Blab, which means that while we're recording, we can also reply to questions you ask during the show. So, if we mention something you'd like us to clarify, or you have some fresh feedback, join in! At least this could be a two-way street, something different from your usual podcasts.

On the first podcast, we'll be focusing on the 2015 Veikkausliiga season and the current state of the Finnish national team. We're aiming for a new podcast every 4-5 weeks, lasting around 30-40 minutes.

So if you'd like to join in, subscribe to our Blab feed from 7pm GMT on Monday 16th November (9pm Finnish time) and help us help you. Don't forget our very catchy hashtag #FFS!

We need you!

Guardian Football Weekly - Sami Hyypiä's wife

Frequent listeners to the Guardian's Football Weekly podcast may well tune in as much for the conversation about random everyday stuff as much as the latest football news.

This week's pod eventually landed on the conversation about the relative height of players, where contributor Gregg Bakowski talked about a meeting with former Liverpool captain Sami Hyypiä in a Merseyside sauna. After a brief chat, Gregg carried on about a 'pale, heavy-set woman' who had an argument with Sami in Finnish, and wondered if that's what Finnish women are like.

Needless to say, the other pod guests guffawed at the sweeping generalisation. It also caused quite the conversation at ETS HQ, where Mrs ETS (from Kuopio) then quizzed me for several minutes about whether that's what I thought. The general sort of chat where women usually win.

Anyway, to clear things up, I don't think Mrs Hyypiä (aka model Susanna Rissanen) could ever be described as heavy-set, and here is the photographic evidence.

In the interests of balance, here is Mr Bakowski, in his sauna outfit..

Football Weekly is recorded on Mondays and Thursdays. This week's episode can be found here.

ETS 2013 resolutions

A week into the new year, and I had an urge to write something. It was either a list of goals for 2013, or a round-up of transfers and gossip but I don't fancy going down that route.

Anyway, I'll be saving this, and coming back to it in December. Anyone offering assistance, ideas and exposure will be especially welcome!

Hello 2013

1. Podcast

In autumn 2012, plans were afoot with Oliver at the Frozen Pitch to plan a podcast on Finnish football. Unfortunately the season ended and other commitments got in the way, but hopefully this year will see some progress. There are enough good and great minds to make this work, even if it's a one-off. While there may not be threatening the charts, it may give some of you a podcast to listen to on the commute to work. This will be the bit I'm most keen on recruiting for...

 The first ETS podcast recording, hopefully with less hair and more laughs

2. Visiting Finland

June is looking good, driving from London with the dog in tow. Plan is to arrive in Helsinki for the international against Belarus on the site's first birthday, and then hopefully a Veikkausliiga match the following weekend (the return Belarus tie is the Tuesday after). I'll be stopping in Turku, Helsinki and Kuopio on the way, so there should be plenty of change. I wonder if I'll be the one man and his dog watching a match from the sideline? Hopefully the fixtures will be out soon so that I can start planning...

Woody my travelling companion

3. Writing proper articles and interviews

In the first couple of months, there were several blogs and articles written about some of the more newsworthy topics, and a huge research piece on the 1912 Finnish Olympic football side. Hopefully 2013 will see some more, and some initial contact has been made with some English based players for interviews. There is also a longer term piece on the 1985/86 European Cup, hopefully to hit soon. Just need to find the time to do it...

1986 European champions Steaua Bucharest - their QF opponents will feature soon